A few Sundays ago, we went to our first Nats game at the new stadium. I think we both agreed that the experienced was mixed. The day we went was pretty crowded since the Nationals were playing the Orioles. Of course, the stadium is brand new, and so everything looked great and new. Our seats were great, just a few rows back from the Nats' dugout on the first baseline. The field was beautiful, and the jumbotron was very... big.

BUT, it was also really hot, and we had seats in the sun and we didn't realize they got ridiculously hot in the sun. Liz had a hard time sitting in them because her shorts weren't long enough to provide protection. There are big ugly parking garages that sit and block any sort of view of the city past the outfield walls. It seems they're still ironing out the kinks even after 3 months of being open. The lines were long, they ran out of concessions, and the food was super expensive. It's true the stadium doesn't have much character, I guess, but I'm not sure what kind of character I'd expect from a brand new stadium.

I am really hopeful, though, that when they finish developing that part of town that it will be lively and fun and full of action. It seems that will happen, but you never know. And hopefully the team will win more than lose. That could never hurt.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Yes, we did go, but we only managed to get there a bit before it shut down. It was super hot, so we breezed through the thing in probably about a half hour. I wanted to go to support this type of thing because I think it's good for SS. But the thing about these events is that they are selling stuff that is cool and kitschy, but it's stuff that you don't really need. So we didn't support it with any purchases. It seemed to be well attended though, even at the end of the event. We missed all the bands, too. Hopefully, they'll keep holding it in SS.